How To Add A Staff Directory In WordPress

Learn how to easily add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site with no coding skills required …

WordPress Staff ListYou have no doubt heard that people will mostly buy from people they already know, like and trust.

Are you searching for inexpensive ideas to grow your business online or get people to stay longer on your site? Then help your visitors get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Adding a ‘Meet Our Team’ directory to your site can generate increased trust, increase your online credibility and get more prospects to contact you.

In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily add an easy-to-maintain simple faculty members directory in your site using free WordPress plugins.

Adding An Employee Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will install, activate and configure a no cost plugin called Simple Staff List.

Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin

Simple Staff List Plugin For WordPress

(Simple Staff List WordPress Plugin)

The Simple Staff List plugin is free and lets you staff members.

First, let’s install and activate the Simple Staff List plugin.

Log into your admin and navigate to Plugins > Add New

WordPress Plugins Menu - Add New

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

In the Plugins screen, search for “simple staff plugin”. This brings up the Simple Staff Plugin in your search results area.

Click on Install Now

WordPress Plugins - Add Plugins screen

(WordPress Plugins  – Add Plugins screen)

Activate the plugin …

Activate plugin

(Activate plugin)

After installing and activating the plugin, a new menu entry will have been added to the WordPress menu bar called Staff Members

Staff Members

(Staff Members)

All of the settings for your plugin are configured and managed in this menu.

Simple Staff List – Plugin Configuration

Depending on the size of your organization and how you want to structure your directory, you can begin to add new staff members at this at this stage, or create several groups (i.e. categories) that you will assign to individual staff.

Staff Members – Groups

Let’s start by configuring your directory categories. From your WP dashboard menu, choose Staff Members > Groups

Staff Members Menu - Groups

(Staff Members Menu – Groups)

This takes you to the Groups settings panel …

Groups area

(Groups settings)

Useful Tip

Note: Setting up directory groups works in the same way as adding categories in WordPress …

Groups work like WordPress categories

(Groups are like WordPress categories)

Add new groups by entering the following information:

  1. Group Name – Enter your category name here
  2. Slug – Type in the slug of your group name. Note: make sure that all letters are in lower case and use hyphens instead of spaces.
  3. Parent – This section lets you set up nested categories
  4. Description – Type in the category description here
  5. Click the Add New Group button when finished to set up a new directory category …

Groups settings

(Groups area)

If you work with a medium to large organization, being able to set up different categories can be very useful. For example, you can create groups for investors, developers, faculties, etc.

Create as many groups and nested categories as you need by adding new Groups and then using the Parent drop-down menu to build a hierarchical structure …

Nested groups

(Nested groups)

Remember to click on the Add New Group button after creating each new item …

Add New Group button

To change Groups for specific items, hover over a category title and click on the Edit link …

Edit Simple Staff List Groups

The selected category open in the Edit Group page. Select a new group category from the Parent dropdown menu …

Edit Group screen

(Edit Group settings)

Click the Update button to save your changes …

Simple Staff List Update button

To edit your Group name or slug, hover over the group name and choose the Quick Edit menu feature …

Group name - Quick Edit

Click on Update Group  to save your changes …

Simple Staff List Update Groups

Continue adding categories in this section until you are done creating your directory structure …

adding groups to your directory

Add as many nested categories as you like …

Add nested groups to your directory

(Nested groups)

Once you are done setting up your groups, you can start to add your people to your directory.

Staff Members – Add New

From your admin menu, click on Staff Members > Add New

Staff Members Menu - Add New

(Staff Members Menu – Add New)

The Add New Staff Member settings …

Add New Staff Member section

(Add New Staff Member area)

This screen provides you with an easy-to-use interface for adding and editing your staff member information and includes the following fields:

Name Section (1)

  • Name: Your staff member’s name
  • Slug: Edit the slug associated with your employee if required (you will see this section after your first save).

Staff Photo Section (2)

  • Photo: Add a photo here

Staff Member Info Section (3)

  • Position: Add the employee’s role
  • Email: Enter the person’s email address
  • Phone Number: Add the person’s phone number here
  • Facebook URL: Type in your company’s Facebook URL (note: use the full URL, e.g. http://www.facebook.com/username)
  • Twitter URL: Add your company’s Twitter username here (note: only enter the username, not the full twitter URL)

Staff Member Bio Section (4)

  • Staff Member Bio: Type in a profile description for your employee or team member here. This uses the WordPress Text Editor, so you can add formatted content into this section.

Groups Section (5)

  • Groups: Assign the person to a group (see the previous section of this tutorial to learn how to set up your groups).

Useful Tip

Click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your screen …

Screen options

(Screen options tab)

You can enable additional features …

Enable additional fields in screen options tab

(Enable additional fields in screen options)

Now that you know what each section does, enter each of your staff member’s details …

Staff directory settings

(Add New Staff Member fields)

After you have entered details, assign your entry to a directory group in the Groups feature in your sidebar …

Groups feature

(Groups feature)

Note: If you did not set up categories before starting to add staff member details, you can add a new group in this screen by selecting Groups > + Add New Group

Groups > + Add New Group

(Add a new group inside your Groups box)

A field for entering your group name will appear, with a dropdown menu to assign your new entry to a parent group. Enter your new group and click on Add New Group

Groups section

A new category will be added. Make sure that the check box is ticked …

New group

(New group)

Useful Info

Note: You cannot edit groups when adding or making changes to a staff member’s details. To edit an item, go to the Groups section of the plugin’s settings (see “Groups” section above for details).

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After typing in your employee or faculty member’s details, click the Publish button to add them to the directory …

WordPress Publish button

Click View Post

View Post

To make changes to the person’s profile, click on the Edit Staff Member link in the admin toolbar …

Edit Staff Member link - WP admin toolbar

(Edit Staff Member link – admin toolbar)

Practical Tip

To learn more about using the admin toolbar , go here:

Note: If ’not found’ page errors shows up like the one shown in the screenshot below, check that your site’s permalinks have been set up correctly …

Not found error? Check your permalinks

(Not found error – Check your permalinks)

We have written a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here:

Repeat the above process to continue adding new members to your employee directory directory.

Staff Members – All Staff Members

After entering staff details into your directory, you can view and edit details by clicking Staff Members > All Staff Members in your menu …

Staff Members - All Staff Members

(Staff Members – All Staff Members)

This brings up a table listing all your directory items and their details …

Staff Members table

(Staff Members details)

If you need to modify an individual’s details, simply hover your mouse over their listing, and a submenu will appear.

Click on Edit if you need to edit the Staff Bio, or Quick Edit to update details such as their name, slug, group, and publish status. You can also remove a list item from the employee directory by clicking on the Trash link, or view the entry on your site by selecting View

Edit Staff Members profile details

(Edit Staff Members details)

If you have many entries, your list can get quite long.

Use the Search Staff Members search feature to find listing items if necessary …

Search Staff Members search field

(Search members)

The plugin also lets you specify which fields can display in this section. To hide or hide fields on your screen, click on Screen Options

Screen Options

(Staff Members Screen Options tab)

Placing a tick in the item’s checkbox displays the field and unchecking a box hides the field. You can also select how many staff members are shown per page. Click the Apply button when finished to update your screen options …

Staff Members Screen Options

Staff Members – Order

Simple Staff List also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to set the order in which your employee listings appear on your directory page.

Select Staff Members > Order on the menu …

Staff Members - Order

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To rearrange the order of your items, click and drag the item to the desired location …

Rearrange listings using drag and drop

(Reorder staff listings using drag and drop)

Your directory will be automatically reorganized …

Reordered list

(Reordered list items)

Once you are done adding all of your member listing details to the directory, the next step is to display the directory on your site.

Staff Members – Order

The plugin also features a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to specify the order that your employee listings show on your directory pages.

Click Staff Members > Order in the main admin menu …

Staff Members Menu - Order

(Staff Members Menu – Order)

To reorder your entries, click and drag the item to a desired position …

Rearrange employee listings using drag and drop

(Rearrange listings using drag and drop)

Your staff list will be automatically reordered …

Reordered list entries

(Reordered listings)

Once you are done adding all of your staff details to your directory, the next step is to make the directory show to your visitors.

Simple Staff List – Additional Notes

The plugin also lets you edit the style and layout of your staff list listings using template tags and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Templates Menu

To customize the layout and style of your staff directory, select Staff Members > Templates from your main menu …

Staff Members - Templates

(Staff Members – Templates)

This brings up the Templates page …

Simple Staff List Templates screen

(Customize your directory template)

To customize your directory, insert any of the permitted template tags inside the [staff_loop] [/staff_loop] code.

For example, here is a screenshot of the default template used for displaying directory listings …

Default Staff Loop Template

(Default Plugin Staff Loop Template)

The above code displays the listing shown below …

Default Simple Staff List Template Listing

(Default Template Listing)

Notice that there are no Facebook or Twitter URLs showing in the above listing. To display these fields, we will need to add the [staff-facebook] and [staff-twitter] template tags, as shown in the example below …

Template tags added to Staff Loop Template

(Template tags can be added to Staff Loop Template)

Here is what your staff list should now look like …

Directory listings with social media URLs

(Directory with social media links added)

Important Info

Note: If you want to customize your directory listings but don’t want to mess around with editing code or are not sure how to edit the template as shown above, please contact us for assistance.

Usage Menu

In addition to being able to customize your listing templates, the Simple Staff List plugin lets you display your listings differently using modified shortcodes.

In your dashboard menu, choose Staff Members >Usage

Staff Members - Usage

(Staff Members Menu – Usage)

This opens the Usage screen …

Simple Staff List - Usage shortcode variations

(Simple Staff List – Usage shortcode variations)

This screen provides a list of all the shortcode variations allowed by the Simple Staff List plugin.

A useful variation you can add, for example, to display only members of a specific group is the shortcode [simple-staff-list group=”group name”], (e.g.:[simple-staff-list group=”Asia Pacific Region”])

You can also make your listings display in ascending or descending order by inserting the shortcode [simple-staff-list order=”ASC”] (ascending).

Options Menu

Select Staff Members >Options in the menu …

Staff Members - Options

(Staff Members – Options)

This brings up the Options page …

Simple Staff List - customizable options

(Options screen)

Here you can edit some of the labels used in the plugin

Finally, you can also export your staff members info from the Tools > Export screen …

Export Staff Members plugin info

(Export Staff Members plugin information)

If you need plugin support, visit the plugin website.

Other Staff Directory Plugins For WordPress

Simple Staff List isn’t the only adding a listing of your team members. Here are some other free plugins you can use to add an employee directory on your website:

Modern Team Staff Directory

Modern Team Staff Directory

(Modern Team Staff Directory – WP Plugin)

This plugin helps you collect your team information and showcase it anywhere on your site in beautiful grids, columns and tables. This premium plugin features over a dozen presets and provides editors that make it easy to edit and update your directory.

Modern Team Staff Directory - Plugin For WordPress

(Modern Team Staff Directory – Responsive Templates)

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

Staff Directory

Staff Directory - WP Staff Directory Plugin

(Staff Directory)

With Staff Directory, you can easily create a directory of team/staff/faculty members. The plugin supports staff categories and can be used for churches, schools, etc.

The plugin also lets you use custom fields …

Staff Directory - Plugin For WordPress

(Custom Details Fields. Screenshot source: Staff Directory website)

Learn more here:

Faculty And Staff Directory

Faculty And Staff Directory - WP Plugin

(Faculty And Staff Directory – Plugin For WordPress)

Faculty And Staff Directory provides a simple and flexible faculty and staff directory for a small college or university.

The plugin also includes a widget that allows you to feature a profile in a widget area.

For more details go here:

Company Directory

Company Directory - WordPress Staff Directory Plugin

(Company Directory)

Company Directory lets you easily add your employees, team or faculty to your website. Different layouts are available, including grid and customizable single views, plus as fields like position title, email address, phone, photo and staff bio, allowing visitors to get to know your company and capabilities.

Visitors will be able to click through from your list, grid, and table views to read more about each staff member in a customizable single view …

Display your staff and faculty members in an easy-to-view format

(Display your staff and faculty members in an easy to view format. Screenshot source: Company Directory plugin website)

This plugin also uses simple shortcodes.

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

Employee Spotlight

Employee Spotlight

(Employee Spotlight – WP Plugin)

Employee Spotlight displays employees, founders or just an individual member of your team in a four-column circle grid page. This page can be easily created with a setup assistant on plugin activation.

Employee Spotlight includes two sidebar widgets which display featured and recent employees, plus two responsive views which adjust to the device screen size.

Detailed information about  each team member can be displayed in their own page, as well as in summary …

Responsive layout with circle grid

(Responsive layout with circle grid. Screenshot source: Employee Spotlight website)

For more details go here:

Staffer

Staffer - WP Plugin

(Staffer – Plugin For WordPress)

Staffer uses custom post types for staff management and supports the display of staff members via a shortcode, allowing you to easily create and manage an onsite employee directory …

Staffer archive page

(Staffer archive page. Screenshot sourced from Staffer website)

Staffer works with almost all WordPress themes, and also allows for custom template use and custom content wrappers.

Learn more about this plugin here:

Practical Tip

If the above plugins aren’t what you’re looking for, search the WordPress plugin directory or go online and search for:

  • Add Staff Directory To WordPress
  • WordPress Staff Plugin
  • Staff Directory WordPress Plugin
  • Employee Directory WordPress
  • etc.

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a simple directory of staff members to your WordPress site, so you can better showcase the people in your business, team, or organization.

Staff Directory WordPress Plugin

Models used to display sample staff members were sourced under creative commons license from pixabay.com

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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)